All posts tagged ‘President Reagan’

Ben Affleck’s “exfil” specialist Tony Mendez prompts six American Embassy workers on their new identities in order to help them flee Iran at the height of the Iran hostage crisis. Photo credit: Warner Brothers Studios.

Fair warning: the next Canadian that I meet is getting kissed hard and long — by way of explanation, I’ll simply whisper Argogently into his ear.

Argo is the title of the taut, entertaining Ben Affleck political thriller just released, and its story is based (with some dramatic license) on previously-classified, real-life events reported in 2007 by Joshuah Bearman in the excellent Wired article “How the CIA Used a Fake Sci-Fi Flick to Rescue Americans From Tehran.”

Essentially, the story is this: In 1979, Iranian anti-American sentiment hit a fever pitch when the United States allowed the deposed Shah of Iran to enter the US in order to receive medical treatment for late-stage cancer. Iranian students and Islamist militia who had already been protesting daily outside the American embassy then climbed the embassy’s walls and took over the building, and almost everyone inside the embassy was taken hostage, only to be released 444 harrowing days later as Ronald Reagan was inaugurated president. Six individuals working in the American visa office were able to escape capture, however, due to the fact that their office had an exit that lead directly out onto the street — and this group of six ultimately found sanctuary at the the home of Ken Taylor, the Canadian ambassador for Iran.